What happens to Gio Urshela when Miguel Andujar returns for the Yankees?

Decisions, decisions.

At some point soon, perhaps as early as Friday night at home against the Twins, the Yankees will start to get some of their injured players back.

Third baseman Miguel Andujar is near or at the top of that list, and when he returns after suffering a small tear in his right labrum on March 31 that had the potential to put his season in peril, the Yankees will be faced with a difficult choice.

Do they immediately reinsert Andujar, who finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2018 but still is very much a work in progress in the field, or do they keep playing the hot hand that belongs to Gio Urshela?

“I guess you play around with it a little bit,” Aaron Boone said of how much thinking he’s done on the topic, although he did not delve into the specifics of those thoughts. “Certainly, initially, before we get more and more guys back, we feel like there’s places for both of them to get in there a lot. We’ll see as we get players back. But these things have a way of working themselves out.”

When Andujar went to the injured list April 1, the notion that Boone would even be asked that question would have been considered laughable.

Urshela came via an unheralded trade last Aug. 4 — from the Blue Jays for cash considerations — and when the Yankees re-signed him on Oct. 24, it was even less heralded. Spring training began and his name was rarely mentioned.

But when Andujar became a part of the tidal wave of injuries, Urshela, originally signed by the Indians as an amateur free agent in 2008, got the call from Triple-A.

With natural instincts and a cannon arm, he’s fielded brilliantly, which is no surprise. But the bat is the reason the Indians, who once had visions of Urshela as an everyday third baseman, gave up on him, dealing him to Toronto in May 2018.

In 167 games from 2015 to 2018 with Cleveland and Toronto, the righthanded-hitting Urshela batted  .225 with a .274 on-base percentage. Yet he enters Friday hitting .345 with a .909 OPS in 21 games.

“I feel like we have a lot of good stories of guys that have come up and really contributed,” said Boone, who didn’t rule out the possibility of Urshela getting time at second or shortstop. “But Gio’s been right [up] there."

Urshela hit the ball hard throughout spring training, the result of some offseason tweaks he made in his swing, mostly having to do with his stance.

“You can see the results,” he said during the Yankees’ 6-3 western trip. “I have more confidence. I feel like I’m driving the ball to the gaps more than I used to.”

And doing work in the field that draws raves nightly. 

“The way I put it is sometimes you see a great defender in the infield and I would just say he laughs at a ground ball coming to him,” said Boone, who played the vast majority of his 12-year career in the majors at third. “It’s like he’s getting into a warm bath. He just picks it up real nice. He’s got a really good arm, accurate. He just plays the position with a real ease. He’s got a great clock. It comes pretty easy to him. He’s gifted over there.”

Infield coach Carlos Mendoza said Urshela’s skills are “unique” but one stands out in particular.

"The way he gets rid of the ball is really impressive,” Mendoza said. “The ball is in and out of his glove as quick as anybody I’ve seen, especially for somebody that plays on the corner.”

All of which leads back to the tough call the Yankees will have to make — if not this weekend, then soon enough.

“I’m not thinking about that right now,” Urshela said.

He can rest assured that plenty of Yankees fans are.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.